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The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - a Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm

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The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - a Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Hamde, Kiflemariam Working Paper Mind in Africa, Body in Europe: The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - A Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm Nota di Lavoro, No. 38.2004 Provided in Cooperation with: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) Suggested Citation: Hamde, Kiflemariam (2004) : Mind in Africa, Body in Europe: The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - A Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm, Nota di Lavoro, No. 38.2004, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milano This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/117910 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Mind in Africa, Body in Europe: The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - A Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm Kiflemariam Hamde NOTA DI LAVORO 38.2004 FEBRUARY 2004 KTHC – Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Kiflemariam Hamde Umeå School of Business and Economics, Department of Business Administration, Umeå University This paper can be downloaded without charge at: The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Note di Lavoro Series Index: http://www.feem.it/Feem/Pub/Publications/WPapers/default.htm Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract_id=XXXXXX The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the position of Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei The special issue on Economic Growth and Innovation in Multicultural Environments (ENGIME) collects a selection of papers presented at the multidisciplinary workshops organised by the ENGIME Network. The ENGIME workshops address the complex relationships between economic growth, innovation and diversity, in the attempt to define the conditions (policy, institutional, regulatory) under which European diversities can promote innovation and economic growth. This batch of papers has been presented at the fourth ENGIME workshop: Governance and policies in multicultural cities. ENGIME is financed by the European Commission, Fifth RTD Framework Programme, Key Action Improving Socio-Economic Knowledge Base, and it is co-ordinated by Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM). Further information is available at www.feem.it/engime. Workshops • Mapping Diversity Leuven, May 16-17, 2002 • Communication across cultures in multicultural cities The Hague, November 7-8, 2002 • Social dynamics and conflicts in multicultural cities Milan, March 20-21, 2003 • Governance and policies in multicultural cities Rome, 5-6 June 2003 • Trust and social capital in multicultural cities Athens, 19-20 January 2004 • Diversity as a source of growth To be defined Partners of the ENGIME network: • Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milano, Italy • Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research, Roma, Italy • Institute of Historical, Sociological and Linguistic Studies, University of Ancona, Italy • Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution, University College London, UK • Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium • Idea Consult, Bruxelles, Belgium • Maison de la Recherche en Science Humaines, Laboratoire d'Analyse Socio- Anthropologique du Risque, Maison de la Recherche en Sciences Humaines, Université de Caen, France • Centre for Economic Research and Environmental Strategy, Athens, Greece • Institute of Higher European Studies, The Hague University of Professional Education, The Netherlands Mind in Africa, Body in Europe: The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - A Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm Summary This paper describes how individuals and groups who had crossed ‘physical, national boundaries’, and who live in a different social context make sense of their lives make sense of their lives by re-constructing their identities - of the sense of who they are, and who they want to be, which is an ongoing process. This is done by narrating the experiences of African men and women who live in Sweden and who struggle to both maintain their cultural identity and at the same time change aspects in their culture due to the context in which they find themselves. Maintaining cultural identity and transforming aspects of that identity therefore constitute the main thrust of the paper. Some of the ways through which immigrants claim to maintain their identity are practices and routines that they repeatedly and consistently perform as if these were uniform both in the host country and in the country of origin. But it is exactly within this premise that ‘maintaining’ an identity is defined in this paper. However, the routines, or practices may have different meanings or significance to different actors, different audience, and especially for the main beneficiaries, in a particular context. In this paper, I will narrate how ‘maintaining’ cultural identity is understood and practiced by Blin (Eritrean) immigrants in Stockholm, Sweden, when they solemnly perform a cultural rite called blessing (gewra) in weddings. The paper is based on a participant observation of weddings from 1992 to 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden, when the Blin speaking people perform the blessing rite, enjoy doing it, show to the audience how they maintain ‘who they are’, and perhaps symbolically confirm their unity with the Blin community. The main actors are the elderly and the bridegroom, both sine qua non if the rite is to get its legitimacy. Thus, the blessing rite is an example of being Eritrean in Sweden for its performers. The concept of identity and identity construction has become an important concept to deal with such demands for ‘maintaining’ and 'transforming' identities. Even though maintaining identity is encouraged in the Swedish social policy, transformation of that identity comes through demands that are widely accepted as modern values, such as egalitarianism, gender equality and individualism – leading to issues of diversity at different levels. If one strictly defines the meaning of the blessing rite, one can find that the meaning sometimes may not be consonant with the so- called modern values but that the people then provide symbolic significance to the rite. Keywords: Blessing rite, Blin community, Culture maintenance, Identity construction, Immigrant Address for correspondence: Kiflemariam Hamde Umeå School of Business and Economics Department of Business Administration Umeå University 901 87 Umeå Sweden Phone: +46 90 7866149 Fax: +46 90 7866674 E-mail: kifle.hamde@fek.umu.se Introduction When individuals cross boundaries, they may make sense of their lives by re-constructing their identities - of the sense of who they are, and who they want to be, which is an ongoing process. The concept of identity and identity construction has become an important concept to deal with such demands for ‘maintaining’ and 'transforming' identities. The purpose of the paper is to describe how individuals and groups who have crossed ‘physical, national boundaries’, and who live in a different social context make sense of their lives. This is done by narrating the experiences of African men and women who live in Sweden and who struggle to both maintain their cultural identity and at the same time change aspects in their culture due to the context in which they find themselves1. Maintaining cultural identity and transforming aspects of that identity therefore constitute the main thrust of the paper. In this paper, I will narrate how ‘maintaining’ cultural identity is understood and practiced by Eritrean immigrants in Stockholm, Sweden, when they solemnly perform a cultural rite in wedding. Among the Blin speakers who reside in Sweden, the rites they perform on different occasions are understood to contribute to cultural identity of the group, both among other Eritean ethnic groups and non-Eritreans. This does not mean that the identity issue is deeply ingrained in the values and norms constituting the rites. In fact, some of the values and norms that the rites aspire to ascribe to members may not easily be integrated with the Swedish values and norms, especially such issues as equality of sexes, roles for males and females and the place of the individual in the community. Even though maintaining identity is encouraged in the Swedish social policy, transformation of that identity comes through demands that are widely accepted as modern values (Meyer
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